Mistakes are inevitable—but how leaders and organizations respond to them determines whether they improve or repeat the same failures. These posts explore mistakes through a Lean lens: system design vs. “human error,” psychological safety, learning cultures, and leadership behaviors that turn errors into improvement rather than blame.
Drawing from healthcare, manufacturing, aviation, sports, and everyday work, this archive focuses less on who failed—and more on what the system made possible.
Mistakes are inevitable; learning is not. These posts align with ideas I expanded on in The Mistakes That Make Us, which examines how leaders, cultures, and systems determine whether errors become liabilities—or catalysts for improvement.
The most dangerous moment in Lean is often right after your first belt class–when you think you’ve mastered it all. You may have seen the joke image that I posted on LinkedIn–it sparked some good discussion: “I’m an expert in…
A Word Worth Remembering (But Hard to Say and Spell) You might recall when I first learned about the German word “verschlimmbesserung“–that wonderfully precise term for “an attempted improvement that only makes things worse”–and blogged about it. The concept still…
TL;DR: Medical mistakes are usually system failures–not individual failures. By asking “why did this happen?” instead of “who caused it?”, healthcare organizations can strengthen psychological safety, fix broken processes, and prevent harm before it happens again. Why Medical Mistakes Are…
I’ve always believed that culture isn’t just one component of success–it’s the foundation everything else is built upon. That belief is central to my own book, The Mistakes That Make Us, and it’s something I speak about frequently with clients,…
TL;DR: A new poll shows that psychological safety at work is often fragile–nearly half of respondents say it “depends on the boss.” Real improvement requires leaders who respond to mistakes with curiosity, consistency, and follow-through. When someone on your team…
We all say mistakes are a part of learning. Or at least many of us do, as individuals. But how many organizations actually act that way? Too often, people are punished for systemic errors. So, problems get hidden. When problems…
TL;DR: Aviation’s safety culture is built on humility: pilots expect mistakes, admit them quickly, and learn without blame. Leaders in any industry can create the same psychological safety by modeling humility, encouraging people to speak up, and treating mistakes as…
tl;dr: Blame-based leadership creates fear, silences learning, and erodes trust. Great leaders replace blame with shared accountability, psychological safety, and system-focused improvement. I recently witnessed a leadership moment that stopped me in my tracks. A CEO, standing on a stage…
I’m excited to be presenting this webinar on February 12th at 1 pm ET as part of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement webinar series: Mistake-Proofing in Action: Real-World Examples Across Industries The webinar description: “Are you looking for practical ways to…
TL;DR: Blame shuts down learning and drives mistakes underground. High-performing organizations move beyond “who’s at fault” and focus on understanding systems, building psychological safety, and learning from failure–turning mistakes into fuel for continuous improvement. Mistakes happen everywhere–on factory floors, in…
Sometimes, wisdom comes wrapped in unexpected packaging–like a fortune cookie. Recently, my friend Alan Wikler, Psy.D., came across one with a simple yet profound message: “Most success springs from an obstacle or failure.” As an aside, I’ve always thought cookies…
Yesterday morning, I drove to a local client to facilitate a lunch-and-learn workshop featuring the Deming “Red Bead Game” and “Process Behavior Charts.” Read more about those topics in my book, Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More.…
